By Dan Christensen, FloridaBulldog.org
Broward Sheriff Gregory Tony was paid $65,000 last year by a for-profit opioid training company led by a Boca Raton man who ran a telemarketing scam that bilked millions from people who were told they were donating to police, firefighter, veterans and cancer research charities.
The company that paid Tony, whose sheriff’s salary was $293,784 in 2025, is the Opioid Training Institute (OTI), according to his recent financial disclosure report. OTI is part of Fort Lauderdale’s Zschool, an online program management company.
On March 31, 2026 Sheriff Tony appeared before Florida’s Statewide Council on Opioid Abatement (SCOA), an advisory board that reviews how state opioid settlement funds are spent, tracks results and makes recommends on funding priorities to the governor and legislature for the coming year.
Tony urged SCOA members to support spending millions of settlement dollars on Zschool/OTI’s online crisis training for first responders. He appeared with an assistant dean from the University of Miami’s business school, which offers the program.
Tony did not disclose the $65,000 personal payment during the presentation, according to both video of the March 31 meeting and a spokesman for the council’s delegated chair. The official minutes of the meeting also contain no reference to such a disclosure.
Sheriff Tony’s lobbying appearance before the SCOA, which is housed within the Department of Children and Families, appears to have violated both Florida’s Constitution and state ethics laws.
The constitution explicitly prohibits public officers, including sheriffs, from lobbying “for compensation on issues of policy, appropriations, or procurement before…any state government body or agency…during his or her term of office.” Florida’s Misuse of Public Position statute states, “No public officer…shall corruptly use or attempt to use his or her official position or any property or resource which may be within his or her trust, or perform his or her official duties, to secure a special privilege, benefit, or exemption for himself, herself, or others.”
Florida Bulldog’s reporting on Tony’s outside income comes amid his increasingly bitter political and legal feud with Broward County and Mayor Mark Bogen, who has accused the sheriff of failing to provide sufficient information about BSO’s $840 million budget and other matters. Tony has denied impropriety and accused commissioners of playing politics.
In late September, the county commission voted unanimously in late September to take back control of county fire-rescue services when the county’s contract with BSO expires in 2028. Commissioners, led by Lamar Fisher, are also moving to strip BSO of other critical public safety components, including the regional 911 dispatch system and airport and seaport security.
A TELEMARKETING SCAM BIG ENOUGH FOR HBO
State corporate records identify OTI LLC’s sole manager and registered agent as J. Henry Scott. That’s the name he assumed 15 years ago after the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) permanently banned him from participating in telemarketing and charitable soliciting and ordered his company, New Jersey-based Civic Development Group LLC (CDG), to pay $18.8 million – then the largest in a consumer protection case when it was imposed in 2010.
The agency said donors were led to believe they were giving directly to charities serving police, firefighters and veterans, but only a small portion of their contributions reached those groups. The settlement order states that the defendants did not admit the allegations or liability.
Scott’s portion of the judgment was $5.8 million, according to federal court records. The massive con was the focus of a quirky 2023 HBO documentary mini-series, Telemarketer$.
But his name wasn’t J. Henry Scott in the FTC’s civil action targeting him, CDG and fellow scamster David Keezer. His name back then was Scott Pasch.
In April 2011, less than four months after settling a smaller civil action brought against him by the State of California, a legal notice published in the Somerville, N.J. Courier News announced that Pasch had applied to change his name to J. Henry Scott. Why the Somerset County Court approved the change isn’t known. Name change records have been confidential in New Jersey since 2021 when the N.J. Supreme Court ordered that all records of name changes be excluded from public access to respect the rights and privacy of transgender individuals, according to a N.J. government website.
Tony did not respond to questions sent through his public information office about what OTI paid him to do.
Florida Bulldog obtained lobbying records from other states identifying Zschool as OTI’s parent company. In a telephone interview last week, J. Henry Scott confirmed that OTI is “part of Zschool, a division. It’s a big company.” He also confirmed that he changed his name years ago but said the change had nothing to do with the FTC action or its 2010 ban.
Scott said Sheriff Tony no longer works as a consultant for OTI/Zschool. “He does not, but he was doing consulting and reaching out, helping us to formulate the programming. He’s an expert in that space. He was helping to review program materials.”
Scott said he did not know whether BSO offers Zschool’s training courses to its deputies. “I don’t have the list,” he said. Council minutes, however, record Lemma – the sheriff of Seminole County – saying in October 2025 that Tony had told him BSO had “launched a training course focused on opioid use disorder and crisis intervention specifically for first responders.”
Florida Bulldog is filing a public records request with BSO seeking further information.
JORDAN ZIMMERMAN’S ZSCHOOL AND OPIOID TRAINING
Advertising executive Jordan Zimmerman founded Zschool, which its website describes as part of the “Zimmerman Advertising Empire.”The company says it partners with Fortune 500 corporations and more than 25 universities nationwide to develop and market executive and business education programs. OTI operates online under the brand Opioid Training Solutions, or OTS.
In South Florida, Zschool partners with the University of Miami. Together, they market a program called Operational Readiness: Opioid Use Disorder Crisis Training for First Responders. “Each course is grounded in real-world strategies for de-escalation, crisis intervention, and connecting individuals to treatment and support services,” its website says.
Scott said Tony served on UM’s advisory opioid training board, which oversees the program. “I’ve met him one time. I met him. But you know, somehow, he knows the people at Zschool.”
Asked about Tony’s compensation, Scott seemed unfamiliar with the fundamentals of how and why OTI/Zschool had paid Tony. “I guess that’s how he was getting compensated for both his time as a board member and any consulting he did to help, you know, craft classes.” He declined further comment.
Zimmerman did not respond to emailed questions relayed to him via his advertising office, including whether he recruited had Sheriff Tony. The office said Zimmerman was on vacation.
Zimmerman, who describes himself as the “architect of a $4 billion advertising empire,” has supported Tony politically Broward election records show he contributed $25,000 in July 2020 to Broward First, Tony’s now defunct political committee. His son, Chase Zimmerman, gave the PAC $5,000 the day before.
Tony’s recently created private website, which promotes bookings, includes a testimonial from Zimmerman: “Sheriff Dr. Tony is one of the finest sheriffs I’ve ever met. His passion for people is only matched by his intellect. Broward County is safer because of his leadership.” The site’s other two testimonials are from former basketball star Shaquille O’Neal and the late Florida State University football coach Bobby Bowden.
Zschool’s four-hour, online courses cost $450 each. The company tells public safety agencies that opioid settlement funds can cover the cost. One settlement guide puts Florida’s share at $3.52 billion, payable over about 18 years. Nationwide opioid settlements total approximately $50 billion and involve manufacturers, distributors and pharmacy chains, including Purdue Pharma, Teva, Cardinal Health, McKesson, CVS and Walgreens.
“Contact us to learn how your training can be 100% fully funded by your state’s Opioid Settlement Funds,” says OTS’s online brochure. Participants are told that upon completion they’ll get a “university-backed certificate.”
The council’s 2025 annual report lists $145.8 million in opioid settlement spending for fiscal 2024-25. The initiatives included recovery housing, peer support and recovery community organizations, opioid data management, more than 767,000 naloxone kits and expansion of the Coordinated Opioid Recovery, or CORE, Network.
Zschool is also seeking opioid settlement funding through lobbying in state capitals across the country.
Florida Bulldog found lobbying registrations under the names Opioid Training Institute, Opioid Training Solutions and Zschools in Florida, Arizona, Texas, North Carolina and Maryland. All registrations listed either Zschool’s Fort Lauderdale address or OTI’s downtown Boca Raton office. J Henry Scott is listed as the corporate authorizer on registration statements in North Carolina and Maryland.
SHERIFF TONY/UM DEAN PITCH STATEWIDE OPIOID COUNCIL
At the March 31 meeting in Seminole County, Tony presented a PowerPoint titled “The Opioid Crisis: Positioning Florida as a National Leader in Training and Preparedness.” He and Rony Shir, associate dean at UM’s business school, sought support for a $3 million statewide pilot program, a video of the meeting shows.
“We’d like to see some form of pilot aspect so we can give this state proof of concept before you engage in [sic] any other whether it be this program, because more are coming if they haven’t already come to you. We want to be the group that says here’s the validation,” said Tony. He added that beyond first responders, “we’re currently examining how do we create a civilian-based program…because often times, as we all know, someone else is dialing 911 and that means a civilian is exposed.”
A successful pilot program could significantly make it easier for Zschool to roll into a long-term state contract when and if bids are sought. The council’s key duties include developing and recommending “metrics, measures, or datasets to assess the progress and success of programs funded by expenditures of opioid settlement funds.”
Competitive concerns are real. Lexipol, a large provider of training platforms for public safety agencies, and Elite Response Training, a minority-owned firm, are two possible rivals.
UM’s Shir told the council that participants in the pilot would receive a discounted price. “The typical cost is $450 a participant. We would reduce this to $200 per participant…The reason for this is the pilot allows us to measure the impact, to gather the feedback, to refine the program before we would consider a broader expansion.”
Council agendas published since March 31 contain no mention of subsequent action on the proposed pilot. The council’s next meeting is scheduled for Nov. 4.
Shir did not respond to detailed questions from Florida Bulldog, including whether the university knew of OTI’s payments to Tony or Scott’s involvement in the FTC’s case. A business school spokeswoman, who was copied on the questions, said Shir was out of the office.
Tony wore a blue business suit rather than his uniform, but Lemma introduced him as “Broward County Sheriff Dr. Gregory Tony.” During the presentation, Shir cited UM’s “partnership strength in collaboration with Sheriff Tony and the Broward Sheriff’s Office and Zschool, our partner.”
Tony told council members he brought “my 20 plus years in academics and law enforcement” to the effort. He said first responders’ training needs were not being met.
“The University of Miami, myself, members that we partner with in the Zschool to push this out has spread across the entire state,” Tony said. “Meetings with chiefs of police, meetings with detention deputies, directors and meeting with EMS personnel executives. And they have signed off to participate and take this course, which is with a four-hour model, at least phase one.”
Tony said nearly 26,000 first responders across Florida have been unable to take the course “because the funding hasn’t been available … it’s a matter of how things are currently structured.” He said opioid training for police, firefighters and detention personnel had not been prioritized.
During the approximately 40-minute presentation, Tony did not mention OTI’s payments to him. The presentation instead emphasized the collaboration among BSO, UM and Zschool.
Council records indicate Sheriff Tony began laying the groundwork for pitching opioid training last year. “Delegate Chair Lemma informed the council of a discussion with Broward County Sheriff Dr. Gregory Tony. The Broward County Sheriff’s Department launched a training course focused on opioid use disorder and crisis intervention specifically for first responders,” the minutes of the Oct. 22, 2025 virtual meeting say. “Sheriff Dr. Gregory Tony will be invited to present at a future Opioid Abatement Council meeting.”
Tony’s description of meeting with police chiefs and other public safety leaders parallels duties listed in a Zschool job posting for an online “advisory board consultant.” The posting does not establish the terms of Tony’s own work.
The posting says its consultants serve as “trusted advocates” who play “a key role in expanding partnerships with law enforcement agencies, driving participation in training programs, and representing our organization within the law enforcement community. This position is ideal for experienced or recently retired Chiefs, Sheriffs, or other law enforcement leaders who are passionate about advancing professional development” and “help departments move from interest to engagement.”
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